In the following essay excerpt, Landy analyzes "The Sailor-Boy's Tale," in the context of its similarity to Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," especially its "exploration of isolation and community."

One of Dinesen's most anthologized tales in Winter's Tales is "The Sailor-Boy's Tale," a tale that orchestrates many of Dinesen's dominant concerns. It is a tale too that is most reminiscent of a work which exercised a great influence on Dinesen's writing, Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Her friend, Denys Finch-Hatton, introduced her to it, and one can see echoes of it in other Dinesen tales. There are many reasons why the Coleridge poem should have appealed to Dinesen. It is a poem which stresses the role of the narrator, particularly the hypnotic effect he has over his auditors, and which stresses the cathartic effect on the storyteller and auditor. Dinesen's tale explores the idea...